Traditional network gateway devices may perform security scans on incoming traffic to identify and block malicious Internet content. Unfortunately, only the most powerful and expensive gateway devices are able to scan all of the incoming web traffic and still maintain desired throughput speeds. Most consumers are unlikely to buy such a powerful and expensive device for use in a home or a small business. Instead, most consumers are likely to purchase cheaper (e.g., consumer-grade) devices that are unable to efficiently scan all incoming web traffic.
To maintain data throughput speeds and provide some security, consumer-grade devices may enable an end user to choose Internet domains whose data will not be scanned. Unfortunately, end-user selection of such Internet domains may result in a variety of problems. For example, a user may set up a gateway device to bypass scanning an insecure domain or sub-domain, which may compromise security of the user's network. As another example, a user's selection of domains for which scanning is bypassed may result in inefficient security scanning on a gateway device, which may result in slower data throughput.
Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies a need for additional and improved methods for managing network security.